Now the Scots actor, Billy Boyd, currently starring in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the soon-to-leave Rangers captain, Barry Ferguson, have both taken the decision to tell fans news first through their own celebrity websites.

Ferguson, who is set to move to the English Premiership, has refused to comment on his transfer in the media but has used his official site to update fans on the speculation surrounding him. Boyd uses his site to keep fans up to date with the latest behind-the-scenes gossip from the film sets.

The growth in celebrity websites has proved an unexpected spin-off for two Glasgow technology firms, Become Interactive, who launched the site for Ferguson, and Biscuit Media which built Boyd's globally-popular portal.

Paul Derwin, the managing director of Become Interactive, said: "There is a huge cult of the celebrity and fans are genuinely interested and sponsors want to tag along.

"We had been planning the launch for some weeks but then the speculation about Barry's future blew up so we decided to create a temporary site, providing the latest information on the player for fans and the media alike."

The cult of the celebrity is now a fully-fledged industry, supported by magazines, television programmes and newspapers, with members of the public desperate for an insight into the lives of stars - including top footballers.

"We believe there is great potential for us to develop the whole area of websites for footballers. We are already in discussions with a number of the leading players' agents in Scotland and in the longer term we also aim to target players in the English Premiership. We don't want to deal with clubs, we want to focus just on the individual," said Mr Derwin.

When the full Ferguson site is launched, it will include regular updates from the player as well as downloads, alerts offering information sent direct to mobile phones and a chatroom to allow fans to communicate with the player online.

Boyd's website was set up by Stewart Steel, who runs Biscuit Media, and its success has led to Boyd's co-stars calling to discuss similar ventures. Design and operation can cost upwards of L8,000.

Mr Steel was the technical manager and lighting designer for the Tron Theatre during the nineties, so he had a friendship with Boyd. The first decision they made was not to create a "vanity site" for the young actor.

"When Billy won the part of Pippin in Lord of the Rings, I was the one who broke the news first worldwide. I told the 'Ain't it cool news' website, it's my only chance of geekdom," said Mr Steel.

"When he returned from New Zealand, I told him I'd been pitching to do Sir Ian McKellen's site and we discussed ideas for this.

"Billy has invested money in the site and we had to find out what would benefit him.

"He said he spent so much time at junkets promoting films and answering the same questions 45 times over to reporters - when did you first read the book, etc."

"He thought it would be a good idea to refer them to his website first. In the last press trips for The Two Towers he said the questions were much more interesting, and it helps him," added Mr Steel.

Although fun to work on and a challenge to create, Mr Steel said celebrity websites can be time-consuming.

It can also take a while to become accustomed to celebrity stalking over the net, he said, while bizarre requests abound: "It's crazy; fans want to know mundane trivia, like where Billy gets his hair cut."

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